Benefits, North Warwickshire (Hansard, 19 April 1994)

§ Mr. Scott

This is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.

Letter from Michael Bichard to Mr. Mike O'Brien dated 18 April 1994: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about benefit recipients in the North Warwickshire area. 490W The full range of information requested is not available and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. This is because statistics are only available by Benefits Agency District for the locally administered benefits, Income Support, Invalidity Benefit, and Sickness Benefit and, of the centrally administered benefits, Family Credit. Unfortunately, the computer systems used to administer Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance do not identify recipients by Benefits Agency District, and to obtain figures for these benefits would require an exercise examining each individual claim, which could only be undertaken at a disproportionate cost. I have therefore shown below figures for the Benefits Agency's Warwickshire District which deals with the North Warwickshire area. As the Warwickshire District also deals with areas other than North Warwickshire it is not possible to say what proportion of these figures relate to persons actually resident in North Warwickshire. It should be noted that statistical data for each of the benefits is collected and collated over different periods and timescales. The latest available figures show that the Agency's Warwickshire District on the last working day of February 1994 there were 35,222 people claiming Income Support; on the last working day of March 1994 there were 10,924 people claiming Invalidity Benefit and 2,021 people claiming Sickness Benefit, and at 18 March 1994 there were 3,430 people claiming Family Credit. I hope you find this reply helpful.